Auckland Transport is spending $71 million lowering speed limits in Auckland, ratepayers just want them to spend that money fixing potholes.
Information released to ACT under LGOIMA shows that 3,143 roads have had their speeds reduced at a cost of $71 million. That’s 39 per cent of the network. We are the first society in modern history to reduce our travel speeds.
Lowering speed limits causes immense frustration for motorists and reduces productivity. Rather than look at opportunities to improve the efficiency of the road network, this backwards thinking is slowing the movement of freight and people.
It doesn’t need to be this way. The Waikato Expressway is a great example of a road that supports a thriving economy and healthy communities - safe, efficient and with a 110km/h speed environment.
ACT supports moves to lower the road toll – but that comes from better roading infrastructure, not slowing people down, causing frustration and putting further restrictions on businesses who have quite frankly put up with enough under this Government.
Increasing the level of private sector funding will inject much needed discipline into decision-making while allowing the Government to maintain prudent levels of public debt.
Between 2007 and 2017, more than NZ$300bn was raised by funds globally to invest in infrastructure. Most of that capital was raised from insurance companies, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds (including our own New Zealand Super Fund) looking for long-term investments with reasonable returns.
This is the sort of long-term thinking ratepayers want to see.
ACT wants a future where we keep moving forward as a society and make advancements over time, the way things are going we’re more likely heading back to the dark ages.
Local government has a much better idea where growth is going to occur and would know which projects are needed to provide for that growth. Central government has the size and scale to design and procure major projects.
Under a government involving ACT, local needs like building roads for tens of thousands of new residents would become the priority for government, not lowering speed limits to a crawl.
We would also use New Zealand’s independent Infrastructure Commission as the auditor to make sure that the 30-year plans deliver the necessary benefits, within acceptable times frames.
This Government might be allergic to long-term decision making, but ACT is not.
